IT'S always a mildly sad time when our spring bulbs finish flowering.
To be honest, the floppy, discoloured leaves left behind really do look a bit messy.
It is true, we can - if careful - transplant clumps of withering, untidy bulbous plants to more secluded parts of a garden, but it must be done without even slightly disturbing the roots.
When bulbs, such as daffodils or jonquils, are deliberately planted in a lawn, they can look fantastic in bloom.
After all, they usually come into flower while most lawns are still in winter or early-spring dormancy.
But when the flowers die it is always when the grass starts going berserk with renewed spring vigour.
It is then that clumps of bulb leaves get in the way and the temptation to get rid of the unsightly mess by running the mower over them becomes overwhelming.
Unfortunately, if bulb leaves are cut back too early, the half-starved bulbs down below are unable to flower next spring.
Luckily we don't need to wait until daffodil and jonquil leaves have completely yellowed.
We can mow them to the ground even as they first start to look miserable and no harm is done.
It is different, however, with tulips and hyacinths.
These plants must not only be allowed to fully die back after flowering, but should be kept watered almost to the end - especially in well-drained soils or when grown in pots or tubs.
A basic difference between daffodils and jonquils on the one hand, and tulips and hyacinths on the other, is the way they are treated during summer.
All the daffodil tribe bulbs can be left undisturbed for years in lawns or garden beds.
The clumps only need to be lifted and divided when they become so congested with small, immature bulbs they stop flowering.
In fact if the most expensive and treasured narcissus clumps are lifted every year around late December, stored under cover and replanted in fresh soil in April, the number of bulbs virtually double every year.
However, tulip and hyacinth bulbs must always be lifted from the soil every year after the leaves have completely died back.
This is because they need a summer-long period of completely dry dormancy.
If left in garden beds, which receive normal summer watering, these bulbs will have rotted away by the end of February.
If the bulbs are in pots, simply stop watering them as leaves finally collapse.
Leave the pots exposed to full, hot sunlight until the insulating potting soil has become bone dry.
If in doubt it pays to check that the potting soil really is completely dry by late December.
It is during this vital period of dry rest that embryo blooms are initiated within tulip and hyacinth bulbs.
If lifted from the soil the bulbs are best stored - oddly enough - within a hot, corrugated iron shed, but out of the direct cooking heat of intense summer sunlight.
During the first stages of dormancy, tulip bulbs in particular like it hot and dry.
This mimics the hot, desert-like conditions favoured by wild tulip ancestors.
It is only later - about April or early May - that tulip and hyacinth bulbs can be given a necessary dry-chilling in a refrigerator.
They can then be planted out in June when garden soil has also become quite cold.
This vital cold treatment is the means by which those lovely, long-stemmed flowers are obtained.
